


Gods of Slaughter

by PrincessLunaLover



Category: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore
Genre: Modern Era, Modern Setting Retelling of Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, Other, also anti ares dumb violent jock, ares favoritism because he's my patron, because why not, but its a long time coming, eros as ares' son, i guess this was also kind of prompted by the resurgence in greek mythology because of hades
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:27:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27867637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrincessLunaLover/pseuds/PrincessLunaLover
Summary: "Leader of righteous men, governor of the rebellious...give you me the boldness to abide within the harmless laws of peace, avoiding strife and hatred and the violent fiends of death.""Hear me, helper of men, giver of dauntless youth! Shed down a kindly ray from above my life, and strength of war, that I may be able to drive away bitter cowardice from my head and crush down the deceitful impulses of my soul."- Homeric Hymn 8 to Ares.A modern interpretation of Ares and Athena.
Relationships: Aphrodite/Ares (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	Gods of Slaughter

.

He was born from the first act of violence, from the first revolution of the mortals.

The Furies emerged from the blood of the Ancients, soaking the Earth with murdeorus vengence and betrayal. They emerged, women with wings and whips and screams of anger for existing after the Golden Age, the age that came to an end under the endless stretches of time that Chronos controlled.

Time stood at a still, under him. Crops grew under him. Mortals did not exist--only the age of magic. He was not born from that.

He was born from mortal death.

He was born when Thanatos came into existence, crawling out of Nyx's cave, blinking into the sun.

.

Men never needed much to kill each other, he found.

He was born to Zeus and Hera, the only child born of the two, and sometimes he wondered why the first thing they would create--the only thing they would create--is war.

He was born when Prometheus sculpted men into being, and set them loose upon the land. The Golden Age of Greece came to an end when men were made, when the first man struck another with a stone.

He was dyed red with the blood of men, he grasped wildly at his mother, screaming with the pain of the first death. Thanatos stood over him, soul in his arms. A boy Ares's age. Struck dead by another, and Ares was covered in the blood of mortal men.

He was named ruin, by his father. Are, the word "bane," the word "ruin." And he was the ending of life, the cause behind such things. He followed behind his mother, clinging to her hand while she cast his father's lovers to torment, and he hid behind her as his father ran.

He was by his mother's side when she gave birth to his half-brother, Hephaestus, and threw him down a mountainside, killing him--or Ares had thought. 

He favored his mother. He always had. She was the blood of the pomegranate, and she was the lion. And he learned what justice was from her, and from the mortals.

.

He played with mortals during his childhood.

He fell in love with vitality, with their blood, with their short time. He was the end of time, he had learned--he was the moments before death. Red was he, and blood was his hands, and he loved the flush of love behind them, behind their hearts.

He was rebellion, for what was war if not the overthrowing of the people? His father, his grandfather, and his great grandfather showed him that much. Slaughter lay at his feet, and he stepped through the blood laid before him by his parents and siblings. They stood on Olympus, and he stood with men. He showed them archery, he showed them spears to defend themselves.

He thought, for a time, that he could stop slaughter by teaching them defense.

He fathered children to Ortera, a woman oppressed by men. Ortera taught herself the ways of war, with Ares at her side. She took the towns, cities, nations of women underfoot, and he lay with her. She was strength, and he lay with her. They had four daughters together, who founded a nation of women. He was chained in the center of their city, in many cities. 

Thanatos stood over him. As always. They moved together, as Ares gave them the spirit of rebellion, and Thanatos took it away.

.

Love and War were entertwined.

She was the drive of men and women, the love of children and husbands and fathers and sons and daughters, and he was the drive to defend them. He was fatherhood and brotherhood and he was a son, and she was a mother and a sister and a daughter who would tear at the throat and the flesh and the blood for each other.

They were protectiveness, the heartbeat of nations, and they were the love of the people for one another, the drive to protect. They were what kings and gods feared. They were the driving force of mortals. And the gods hated them for that.

They had sons and daughters who would ride upon his chariot. They had Eros. They had gentle love.

His father despised him for giving mortals rebellion. His father despised him for giving them progress and hope and will to march ahead. He lost, time and time again, but he had the ability to move forward.

His father hated him for that.

.

Athena was his father's favorite.

She stood beside him, high upon the thrones of Olympus, while he stood amongst men.

He slaughtered the first creature to defend his daughters. Athena defended the murder of Clytemnestra, saying that mothers were only incubators of their daughters, while Hera watched in disgust. 

Athena directed generals, standing behind them while she whispered ideas of conquest in their ears. Athens was an empire, a city-state of art and progress, of theatre and performance, and Greece trembled before the protection of the classical world of Athens.

She stood apart from men, staff in hand and helm upon her head, wearing pure white with her owl upon her arm. Goddess of Intelligence, of Wisdom, the art of war without bloodshed, war from afar. That was she.

He stood among men, as she directed them. The general of the gods.

.

Time marched forward, with the Golden Age behind them.

They did not change.

She sat upon the councils of war, among the rich and the powerful. She was presidents, kings, conquerers. She was powerful men. She was men with fine suits and deep pockets and she was ideas in their ears from afar.

Was war not clean this way?

Science marched towards destruction, and she was bombs from countries away, destructin of cities clean and sterile. She was cold detachment from the heavens, intelligence without blood.

She was cold.

War for empires, war for power--and she was dominance without bloodshed. And Ares was her opposite. 

Ares stood in the dirt.

Ares was children held in his arms, beside the mothers who screamed in rage as fire fell from the skies. Ares was cities after destruction, walking among the men who stood with fires in their eyes in vengence, anger burning in their soul. 

Ares had been rebellion, since the time of the Amazons. Ares was born from the rebellion of his father, his grandfather, and his great-grandfather before him. Ares was bloodshed, slaughter of the innocent. Ares was their loss, their anger. Ares was their defiance against Thanatos from the beginning to the end.

Ares was justice, righteousness. Ares was war. Ares was not the intelligence of war, not the cold calculation of death.

Ares was blood, Ares was mortal. 

And everyone hated him for being the most human of the gods.

**Author's Note:**

> This was written in response to a very popular Tumblr post which discussed the idea of Ares as a God of Slaughter, and Iphigenia as the true God of War, because she was an innocent life lost to war. I thought this was...interesting, I guess, but ultimately missed the point of the split of Ares and Athena. 
> 
> In part, this was also written because of the God of War games, which, again, miss the point of Ares and Athena entirely. 
> 
> The Wonder Woman movie, as well, missed the point entirely. I've also never read the Percy Jackson series, so take that for what you will.
> 
> It is mostly a cathartic piece, a tribute to Ares, in an age certainly under the domain of the distant and intellectual general, Athena.


End file.
